1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mechanical connection between a flat multi-conductor cable and a connector and in particular a strain relief connection and method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
There are two aspects to connecting a flat multi-conductor cable to a connector. One is the electrical connection between the conductors of the cable and the various pins of the connector. The other is the mechanical connection between the cable and the connector. With respect to the latter, some form of strain relief is generally required to decouple from the electrical connection the mechanical loads that may be imposed along the length of the flat cable.
A standard method of flat cable strain relief is to mechanically clamp the cable insulation between two connector parts or jaws. This method is not particularly effective when the cable insulation has a very low coefficient of friction, such as when the insulation is made of a fluoro-polymer. This method also is limited to a narrow range of cable thickness. Thus, connector jaws for mechanically clamping one cable may have to be changed to a different size to clamp a cable that lies outside of a narrow range of thickness.
Another known strain connection between a flat cable and a connector is adhesive bonding of the cable insulation to the connector housing. This method does not work with some insulations, such as fluoropolymers, that are not easily bonded. With such insulation material, a hazardous etchant must be used to prime the insulation prior to bonding. Moreover, adhesive bond strengths to most insulation materials are typically less than that provided by mechanical attachment.
The subject invention provides an improved method of mechanically connecting flat cable to a connector. The connection couples loads imposed on the cable to the connector housing while avoiding strain on the conductors and their electrical connections.
Additional advantages of the invention are set forth in part in the description which follows, and, in part, will be obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention.